Blood Covered Cards
by Forensic Kitteh
Summary: Gambling often times has a deadly side. When a chain of murders related to illegal gambling appear, the team must dig into the secret life of gamblers. NANOWRIMO FIC. Episode/RaiN fic. Rated T for themes, swearing, and violence. Reviews please.
1. Trip Down Your Past

Two silver Hummers pulled up to the beach side condos. It was eight in the morning, and it was a Saturday, so neither of the CSIs was amused. "Okay, honestly, for what am I missing sleep?" Ryan asked when he saw Natalia get out of the Hummer.

"A dead body. Murderers don't follow our sleep schedules." Natalia said, handing Ryan a cup of coffee. Ryan stared at Natalia. "Just take it before my 3 hours of sleep self steals it back from you." Natalia dead panned, sighed. Both of them drank the coffee in near record time, the liquid burning their throats.

"So, you look like you had a worse night than I did." Ryan smirked and Natalia glared him. They were already half way to the sixth floor where the scene was.

"I couldn't fall asleep till about 5 this morning, and then the duty call came." Natalia said as the elevator beeped and the doors opened to let them onto the sixth floor. Blue carpet lined the hallway, paintings of sorts on the wall. It looked a bit more like a hotel than a condo. "I get severe cases of isonomia, if you were wondering." Natalia said. "And why the hell did I just say that?" Natalia snapped at herself, ducking under the crime scene.

"Well, I don't know, but I was wondering." Ryan said as they looked around the living room of the condo. The place was more like a piece of modern art work rather than a home. The ceiling was caved in, skylights dotting it. The kitchen was made purely of green items, while the living room was composed of black and white items. "Where's the body?" Ryan asked, looking around the kitchen.

"Bathroom." Natalia said, as the two of them headed towards the bathroom. "The maid found the body-"

"Wait, the maid?" Ryan interuppted, Natalia glaring at him impatiently.

"You're not deaf Ryan, so please, quit faking that you are." Natalia snapped.

"Sorry, just why would someone need a maid in a condo?" Ryan frowned, as they entered the bathroom. The bathroom was about a half of what the living room was. The body, a male in his 50s was in the tub, wearing a purple silk robe, blood infused water surrounding it. A shock of silence overtook Ryan.

"You okay?" Natalia asked, looking at Ryan who was staring at the body, confusion plastered on his face.

"I'm fine, it's just that-" Ryan paused, looking for words that would explain the situation.

"It's just that what?" Natalia egged him on, hoping for a straight forward answer.

"The vic. He's one of my old bookies." Ryan said, his brow still furrowed. "God, how I tried to bury that past." Ryan sighed, crouching down next to a drop of blood on the tile flooring.

"You can't bury or out run your past. It's there, and until someone invents time travel, it's going to be there, and the only things that you can do about it, is admit that you screwed up and live with it." Natalia sighed, looking around the bathroom for signs of struggle. "No signs of struggle, what do you think happened?" Natalia asked, Ryan still staring at the body.

"I'll say surprise attack or he was sedated with something. Those two, or the killer was someone that he knew and didn't take as much of a threat." Ryan said. "And then of course there are a few dozen people that just wanted him dead." Ryan stood up, pulling off his gloves and pulling out his cell phone. "Tom needs to get over here so that we can process the crime scene properly." Ryan said.

"Yeah. I'll go check out the rest of the rooms." Natalia said.

=x=

"Dr. Loman, what do we have?" Horatio asked as Tom inspected the body.

"Single gunshot to the chest, he died of hemorrhagic shock. Blood loss, that is." Tom said, as his assistants brought in a body bag.

"Anything else?" Horatio asked, and Tom nodded.

"Found this in his robe pocket." Tom said, handing Horatio a waterlogged, blood covered deck of cards. "Not everyone carries a deck of cards in their robe pocket." Tom mused, and disappeared with his assistants and the body.

"Mr. Wolfe-" Horatio called Ryan out of the bedroom where he and Natalia were collecting evidence.

"Yeah, H?" Ryan asked, walking over to where Horatio was standing.

"You said that you had previous contact with the victim." Horatio said, and Ryan sighed.

"When I was gambling, he was one of my bookies." Ryan said his voice low. "We've got at least a few dozen suspects, because everyone that owed him money wanted him dead. I won't lie, at one point, I wanted him dead too." Ryan said.

"If we have a few dozen suspects, then we better get to work." Horatio said, before leaving Ryan standing in the door way.

* * *

><p><strong>WHOOO~<strong>

**So, this is like this year new and amazing and interesting novel fanfic. Except this one will be short and not have 7 more fanfics/books.**

**I know it's not great, I know it's pretty "I didn't do my research" like, but I wrote it at 1am on Nov 1. **

**Reviews?**


	2. Where's the Body?

"I don't get this. I don't get why someone would place only green items in the kitchen, and only burgundy and brown items in the bedroom." Walter said as he took a photograph of the food remains in the trash.

"We're not here to understand, Walter, we're here to solve a murder." Eric said as he collected evidence off the dining table. "Looks like our victim had a guest last night." Eric took a few photographs of the two half finished plates.

"Female, I bet." Walter said, then suddenly turned around. "Where's Calleigh, Delko?" He asked, and Eric chuckled.

"You're asking me as though I have to know where she is. It's her day off." Eric explained.

"Wolfe!" Walter's voice boomed as Ryan and Natalia made their way to the door, their hands full of evidence. "Can you do me a favor? Can you take this to the lab, and maybe start processing these?" Walter asked and Ryan scowled.

"No, actually I can't do you that favor so you'll take all that evidence to the lab yourself and process it yourself, because my hands are full, and I still need to get sleep tonight." Ryan snapped and left.

"Well!" Walter exclaimed furiously. "Maybe I'll take his advice and actually head to the lab with all of this." Walter said, picking up the sealed boxes and heading out the door with them.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Still need the coffee?" Natalia asked, coming into the A/V lab where Ryan was, disecting the victim's PalmPilot. "And did you get anything?"

"Yes and no." Ryan said as Natalia handed him the coffee. "It's all screen names and what not. No real name is listed here. It's either a name that the gambler made up or their initials. Nothing else."

"Well, none of the hair from the bedroom matched CODIS, and uh, there were 4 samples." Natalia said.

"I hate square one." Ryan sighed, as his cell phone buzzed. "Or not." Ryan half smiled.

"A lead?" Natalia asked, and Ryan laughed.

"I wish. But no, it's another murder. This time, it's on an offshore casino." Ryan said, and Natalia frowned.

"What, is this the flavor of the week or something? Gambling murders?" Natalia asked as Ryan got out of the chair.

"Things are rarely coincidence on this job, so I'll say it's not. And that there is a good chance that these two murders are somehow connected." Ryan said.

-x-x-x-

The moment Ryan stepped onto the ship, into the casino, he felt queasy. Queasy as though he was anticipating a game of poker, yet fearing the outcome of it as well. But he had not gambled in five years, why break the streak and possibly lose everything again? He'd lost everything once already.

"Ryan?" Natalia nudged him carefully, bringing him back into reality. Ryan took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds collecting his thoughts. "Are you positively sure that you're okay?" Natalia asked, and Ryan smiled.

"Once again, I'm fine, just being in a casino is... strange, I guess." Ryan said, looking at Natalia who wore an expersion of partial doubt on her face. "Really. Strange feelings, that's it." Ryan explained, hoping that Natalia would believe him.

"Okay, but if I sense anything out of place with you, I will do my own investigation." Natalia said, grinning.

"I honestly wouldn't doubt that you would do that, because I know that you could easily do something like that." Ryan said and Natalia laughed softly.

The new body, the body of Elena Simonova was located in the engine room of the ship. Elena was wearing a light brown blouse and a white mini skirt when she was tied to a board and stabbed to death.

"And this is when it begins to smell of mafia work." Ryan said, frowning. "Oh, Tom is going to be so happy, 2 bodies in less than 12 hours." Ryan said.

"Why do you think this it work of the mafia?" Natalia asked, looking at the body with renewed interest.

"The name first of all, is probably Russian. And, before she was murdered, she was tortured with the same thing that she was murdered with. The knife." Ryan said. "There are some non life threating, but painful cuts along her torso." Ryan said pointing them out.

"Yeah, well, it's a theory, and, we know how to prove our theories. Evidence!" Natalia grinned and Ryan chuckled.

"Well, I'll stay here, and you can go question the owner of this boat. And I'll get Tom again." Ryan said as Natalia left the boiler room. "And Tom's busy, so he'll be here in about thirty minutes." Ryan said.

Twenty minutes passed, Natalia questioned the person that found the body, the owner of the casino boat, and some of the patrons and came up with nothing. Ryan was processing the hallway that led to the engine room, when Natalia came back into the engine room and stopped dead in her tracks.

"What the hell?" Natalia blinked a few times, hoping that she was hallucinating.

"What- oh shit. Where the hell did the body go?" Ryan asked, his hazel eyes growing to the size of tennis balls.

-x-

**Posted because I A) remembered, and B) it's CSI: Miami Sunday with an illegal gambling themed episode! :D**

**Over and out, Katia.**

**There's supposed to be be Ryan angst in the next chapter. Review this, get it the first thing tomorrow. :) **


	3. Truth About the Past

"Ryan, wh-" Natalia couldn't even phrase the question because it was useless to ask. The duct tape that bound Elena to the board was cut with some not so sharp instrument, some of the duct tape just pulled off the board.

"I was right outside the door! No one came in!" Ryan exclaimed and Natalia sighed. "Or out? Where the fuck is the victim?"

"Ryan, I have no idea, honestly." Natalia said carefully and Ryan took a deep breath.

"There must be a second entrance or something, or our perp is a ghost that disappears within second." Ryan said, staring at the board. "Let's just process the scene, maybe we'll figure something out." Ryan said half heartly.

"I'll go ask for the blue prints." Natalia said, and disappeared again as Tom entered the room, and frowned.

"Wolfe, where's the body?" Tom asked, and Ryan scoffed. "Is this like a prank or something, because if it is, it's not all that funny." Tom said, and Ryan scowled.

"Tom, it's not a prank, we had pictures of the damn body, the thing is, it just disappeared. I was processing the outside of the engine room, and when Natalia and I came back into the room, it was gone." Ryan sighed.

"Um. Okay. Guess there's no use for me here then." Tom said and left. Ryan frowned, looking at the drops of blood leading to a trap door. He was pretty sure that they weren't there the first time he look around. He headed towards the trap door, just when Natalia came back with the blue prints.

"Did you get anything?" She asked, but Ryan just frowned. "Ryan?"

"Call me crazy, but I don't think that anyone was here." Ryan said, and Natalia bugged her eyes out at him.

"What are you talking about? How was the victim able to get off the beam and just leave if she was dead?" Natalia asked.

"Never mind, it was just a strange idea." Ryan said quietly. "I've got a finger print on the handle to the trap door." Ryan declared. "Partial, because it looks as though it wasn't wiped off properly." Natalia grinned.

"Well, at least we're not in square one anymore." Natalia said, but Ryan didn't grin or laugh in answer.

"But we also have a missing body, and if we don't get a good explanation for it, we'll be really screwed with IAB."

"Excuse me, Mr. Wolfe and Miss Boa Vista, but the IAB want to question you." Horatio said, popping into the break room where the two and Walter were having coffee.

"Oh, how did I know that this will happen?" Ryan sighed, putting down his cup.

"Sorry, Walter, we have go get tortured now." Natalia said bitterly dropping her unfinished coffee into the trash can.

-x-

"So, you're saying that when you went back into the original crime scene, the engine room, the body wasn't there." O'Shay said, Natalia glaring at him.

"That is correct. I have, as I have showed you, photographs that prove the fact that the body was there, and that none of this is a hoax." Natalia said. 15 minutes into the interrogation, and all that Natalia want to do was break O'Shay's neck.

"Right. And you do not suspect that CSI Wolfe had anything to do with this? Because from what I understand he had already had previous contact with one of the victims." The IAB investigator asked. Natalia grimaced.

"Look. I've told you this already about a dozen times. Ryan didn't take the body. He had no reason to do that, so why are you still questioning me and not letting me go back to the scene to actually figure out what happened to the body?" Natalia snapped. The IAB investigator stared at her.

"Please don't tell me how to do my work, Miss Boa Vista." O' Shay said and Natalia shrugged half heartily.

"I was just stating my opinion." Natalia explained. O' Shay visisbly stiffened.

"No one asked you for your opinion, Miss Boa Vista." He snapped and excused Natalia from his office. In the breakroom was a sulking Ryan, staring out the blind covered window.

"So, I'm going to guess that the questioning went horrible." Natalia said, walking up behind Ryan and he groaned.

"How'd you know?" Ryan asked, a frown on his face.

"Ask me a more complicated question that you can't answer yourself, please." Natalia sat down next to him, staring at her friend.

"How did your interigation by the devil go?" Ryan asked, and Natalia laughed dryly.

"I was told not to tell O'Shay how to do his job and I was pulled off the case." Natalia bit her lip, staring at her hands.

"Oh. Well, so was I, actually." Ryan sighed. "I guess the case is better off without people under who's surveliance, bodys just disappear." Ryan frowned, getting up.

"You like you could use a drink. How about we go grab one after our shift is over?" Natalia asked, and Ryan almost smiled.

"Sure. Meet you in the locker room in a few hours then." Ryan said and left, leaving Natalia in the locker room, slightly stumped.

-x-

"Right. So, I wasn't going to ask you what's wrong, but I'm changed my mind. What's bothering you?" Natalia asked, as Ryan took a swig of his beer.

Ryan frowned. "Just that this case is making me realize that..." Ryan trailed off, staring at the table. Natalia was sitting opposite him, her brown eyes filled with compassion.

"Yeah?" Natalia asked carefully.

"Nevermind that." Ryan said, anger tinging his voice. A small ripple of fear went through Natalia. "I went bankrupt. I saw people gamble off themselves, lose, and get murdered right at the table." Ryan said, and looked at Natalia, at though he was expecting her to say something.

Natalia sat silently. The silence promted Ryan to continue.

"It's funny, the fact that when you go bankrupt, you're almost euphoric. There's a part of you that knows that you don't have anything, but there's the part of you that so fucking glad that you can't lose anything else and you're safe because you don't have anything." Ryan said, the memories pouring in faster than he wanted. "I was stupid. I thought that I could win back what I lost, so I took loans." Ryan sighed and ordered another drink. "That back fired pretty quickly. I lost what I got as a loan, my patrol paychecks were going to pay off those loans... remember the guy that was blackmailed me and made me lose my job?" Ryan asked, and Natalia laughed.

"Yeah. He thought that he could scare me." Natalia said.

"Yeah, well I knew that I would end up getting fired if I didn't pay him back, but I didn't the 10 grand at the time, so I chose the less of two evils and decided to attempt and get the ten grand by gambling." Ryan said, finishing off his beer. "That was actually, maybe not such a stupid desicion as I thought it would've been." Ryan said.

"Minus the fact that you got fired for a year." Natalia said.

Ryan scoffed. "Yeah, I guess. But still, better to pay off a debt and lose your job rather than lose your job and still be in debt."

"Ryan?" Natalia asked, knowing that she was about to go into a scary territory.

"Yeah?" Ryan ordered another beer, hoping that it would wash out the thoughts in his head. Alchohol had already numbed him enough to tell Natalia about his past with gambling, but now he was just wondering if it would knock most of his memories out.

"This is another question that I really didn't want to ask you, but I'm left with not much of a choice." Natalia said. "What happened with the evidence-"

"You mean the evidence I altered for the stock broker case?" Ryan asked, the slightest bit of a frown crossing his face again. Natalia nodded. "Yeah, well let's just say that this ties back in with the gambling." Ryan said.

"I figured that out." Natalia took a sip of her beer, and looked at Ryan questioningly.

"Mark Gantry was one of my best friends in college. We ended up gambling together. He got into more debt than I did, and after I stopped gambling, he continued. I tried to stop him, but, it didn't work. When he finally did stop, which was about a year before the broker case, the Russian mob wanted the money that he owed him in about a year. He owed a bit over seventy grand." Ryan sighed, looking at Natalia through beaten eyes, his shoulders sagging with what he had just reaveled. "He was able to give back most of the debt with working dirty jobs for the Russians, but that's when I found out and had to stop him." Ryan said, running a hand through his hair.

A few moments of silence went by before Ryan had enough energy to contiune. "When I asked him to get out of Miami, far enough so that the Russians wouldn't find him or Billy, I had to take over his debt. Eight grand, I figured I could pay it off over some time." Ryan said.

"But the Russians wanted it fast." Natalia said, figuring out that it was the most understandable thing that would've happened.

"Yup. I got a flat on the Hummer when I was heading to the lab. I got out of the car and before I knew it, I was in the back of a grimy van. In about fifteen minutes, I was in a warehouse, getting tortured." Ryan sighed. "They wanted to use me as a CSI, they wanted to cover for the murder. I wasn't cooperating. They figured that no matter how much pain they inflicted upon that I would still not work to cover up their dirty work, so they said that unless I had all of Ivan's groupies out of the lime light and someone else under it, Billy would've been killed." Ryan said. He looked at the set of empty bottles before him and sighed. "I feel like an idiot asking you, but could you-" Ryan asked, but Natalia interuppted him with a small laugh.

"Could I give you a ride home, because you're and there's no way in hell I'd actually let you drive home drunk?" Natalia asked, and Ryan nodded. "Yeah. I could. And I would." Natalia said.

-V-

**I'm pissed off right now, but I got 4 reviews. Y'all got an angsty chapter.**

**Now if my space is malfunctioning here, don't bitch at me, KAY THANK YOU. **


	4. First Suspect

"Thanks. For listening and, um..." Ryan frowned, attempting to phrase the words on his mind. If there was on down side regarding alchol, it was the fact that it blurred thoughts across Ryan's mind.

"You're welcome. Get your car in the morning." Natalia said, handing Ryan the keys to his car. "Good night." Natalia said and left before Ryan could even ask how Natalia had gotten his keys in the first place.

-x-

"So. Since I really doubt that either Wolfe or Natalia took the body-" Walter said, when he faced Eric and Calleigh in the engine room of the casino. The Coast Gaurd had the boat towed to shore, allowing the MDPD take in under their temporary juristiction.

"We have to go through everything with a fine tooth comb." Calleigh finished the sentence.

"Exactly. We can't have two CSIs off a case at the same time." Walter said. "The body was duct taped to this beam. Natalia went to get the blue prints for the ship, while Wolfe was outside, looking for drag marks outside." Walter frowned.

"Yeah. We also had the officer guard the entrance." Eric said. "Unless there's a second entrance into this engine room, we have no idea of what's going on. The victim didn't have a pulse when Natalia checked her out, so there was no way that she was able to walk off on her own." Eric said.

"Let's get to work then. Ryan said that he found a trap door and a partial print on it." Calleigh said. "But then again, anything evidence that they collected is automatically unusable because of the fact that they are off the case." Calleigh sighed. "I'll take the trap door, hopefully find something useful."

Eric went with Calelleigh to investigate the trap door, while Walter was left to process the beam that Elena was bound to. There was a part of the duct tape where it looked at though someone had used their teeth to tear off the tape apart. That was imediatly photographed and a swab from the edge quickly packged into an evidence enevelope.

"We've got nothing. It just looks like some sort of storage room." Eric sighed, when he and Calleigh came up from the space that was hidden under the trapdoor.

"Nothing but spiders and dust bunnies." Calleigh said, and Walter sighed.

"I might have some saliva samples." Walter frowned. "We run the sample and hopefully get a hit with CODIS."

-x-

"I was wondering when I was going to get something." Maxine half smiled when Walter came in with the packaged swab.

"Yeah, well, Valera, can you please work your magic on this? We need Wolfe and BV back on the case." Walter said, handing Valera the yellow envelope.

"I will work my 'magic' on it, but I do have a first name you know." Maxine said. Walter looked at her questioningly.

"Valera isn't your first name?" Walter asked, slightly dumbfounded.

The envelope fell from Maxine's fingers, Maxine attempting to not tear Walter to pieces. "Can't you read?" Maxine snapped, pointing to her embroidered name tag on her lab coat. "My first name is Maxine, thank you very much." Maxine sighed, picking up the envelope.

"Sorry, Maxine." Walter said.

"It's not the first time though. Travers also thought for some thing that my first name was Valera. Now he thinks that I'm related to an aardvark." Maxine grimaced. The computer beeped, a grin spreading across Maxine's face. "And we have a hit in CODIS." Maxine said, handing Walter the profile.

"Thank you, Maxine!" Walter said, and high tailed out of the DNA lab.

-x-

"Sit down!" Walter snapped, forcing the guy into a chair.

"I didn't do anything, and I can sue you for police brutality if you don't let me go." He said. His name was Martin Nixon.

"Oh really? We found your siliava on the duct tape that bound Elena Simonova to a beam and you say that you didn't do anything?" Walter asked. Frank entered the interogation room, his hands resting on his hips.

"Wait, what? What about Elena?" Martin asked.

"You know her?" Frank asked. "Because if you do, you better speak up."

"She's my girlfriend." Martin said, his voice becoming quieter as his throat dried up.

"She's his girlfriend! Isn't that such an interesting coincidence, Frank?" Walter said, sitting down across from Martin. "So what? Did she cheat on you? Is that why you bound her to the beam?" Walter asked, a mask of fury settled across Martin's face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about! What happened to Elena? Where is she?" Martin exclaimed, jumping up.

"Oh just sit down!" Frank snapped, and Martin did so.

"We found her bound to a beam in an offshore casino." Walter said, sliding Martin a picture of Elena bound to the beam, blood covering her clothes. Before Walter was able to say another word, Martin interuppted him.

"Is she dead?" Martin asked, his voice full off fear as he looked at the picture before him.

"We don't know." Walter said bluntly.

"What do you mean?" Martin asked. When something didn't add up with the cops, he knew that something was off.

"She disappeared before we were able to process her. Know if you know where she is or anything at all, it'll really help us figure out what's going on with her." Walter said, but Martin only sighed.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea where she is." Martin shrugged. "I'll give you DNA, finger prints, whatever, but I didn't do this. Honest." Martin said.

"Cooperating. Smart guy." Frank said, before he left the interogation room.

**So..not a great update. **

**I have good and bad news! **

**Bad news:** **The romance category**** no longer works. Sexual**** tension isn't romance, sorry. :( ****  
><strong>

**Good news: The end of the fic will not be the end because I'll be writing a sequel that is set 6 months after the end of this huge case where the team works with a serial murderer that buries people alive. No one is ever safe, badge or no badge. In a nutshell this line is important: ****"Last thing that she felt before she blacked up was someone's fingertips ****touch her dirt smudged face." **

**Reviews? :) **

**And for the person that can figure out what context is the line from can get anything they want written into BCC. :)**

**_Except one thing, and that is R/N romance. Guys, I'm sorry. See the bad news. _  
><strong>


	5. Elena

**Hi~**

-x-

The house of Martin Nixon stood empty. Or so Eric and Calleigh though when they went in to take a look around. They were about to open the door to the bathroom when they heard someone cursing behind the door.

"MDPD, open up!" Calleigh knocked on the bathroom's door, waitng for an answer.

When no such answer came, Eric jiggled the door knob, which proved to be open. Upon opening it, they found a strange scene. The victim that was on the pictures, was laying on the floor, unconsious, a needle and thread hanging out of one of the wounds.

-x-

"So, how was she able to stich herself up without feeling any pain?" Walter asked the doctor that was Elena's doctor for the time being. Elena was just out of critical care.

"She is one of those rare people that don't feel pain." The doc said, and Walter's brows scrunched up.

"I... um... what? People like that exist?" Walter asked, writing something down into his yellow legal pad.

"Yes they do, officer. Those people can be shot and still be able to walk around as thought nothing had happened." The doctor said. "If that's it, I'd like to get back to work." The doctor said, and Walter just nodded, letting the doctor go.

-x-

"Well, now that they found the body which wasn't really even a body, we can get back to this case." Natalia said, when she saw Ryan walk into the break room. "Ryan?" Natalia asked, when Ryan didn't even look at Natalia. "Thinking again?" Natalia asked.

"Huh?" Ryan asked, turning around to look at Natalia. "I didn't hear what you said." Ryan said, and Natalia sighed.

"Never mind, thinker." Natalia sighed. "Even though Elena's alive, what happened to her still counts as attempted murder." Natalia said. Ryan paid hardly any attention. "Ryan, what's going on?" Natalia asked.

"Nothing." Ryan said, leaving Natalia standing in the break room.

-x-

"Hey, Molly, what'd you get?" Ryan said coming into the trace lab where Molly was going through Elena's clothes.

"Nothing yet. Nothing at all. All that's on her clothes in her blood and that's it. No traces of anything foreign were found on the shirt. I'm starting to process the skirt just now." Molly said.

"Need a hand?" Ryan asked. Molly laughed.

"Sure." Molly said. Travers entered the glass walled room, a frown forming on his face.

"Hey Mike." Molly said, and Travers just smiled in response. Once Ryan and Molly had finished processing the skirt and shoes, Molly suddenly giggled.

"What's so funny?" Ryan asked. Molly smirked.

"Nothing. I was just, um, wondering... are you today anything tomorrow evening?" Molly asked.

"No. Why?" Ryan asked, staring at Molly.

"I was hoping that we could go grab some coffee." Molly shrugged, a tint of pink arising on her cheeks.

"Um... sure, I guess." Ryan said, not even thinking too much about it.

-x-

"Look, I'm sorry for calling you an aardvark the other day, but what's going on between Molly and Wolfe these days?" Travers asked, when he saw Maxine in the DNA lab.

"I- um- what? I thought you were going to ask me about Natalia and Wolfe, but what about Molly now?" Maxine asked, setting down the empty evidence envelope.

"Wait, what about Wolfe and Natalia?" Travers interuppted, looking at Maxine, his murky green eyes wide with confusion. Maxine grinned.

"Who's the aardvark now?" Maxine half snapped at him, and he smirked. "They went out for drinks two days ago. Now tell me what's going on Ryan and Molly before I attempt to find out on my own and probably create a lot of damage in the process." Maxine grinned.

"They're going out for coffee tomorrow." Travers frowned, as the computer before Maxine beeped. "Evening." He added, emphasis on the word.

"Well, thank you, for telling me about what's going in this lab, but I have to go find Calleigh." Maxine said, snatching the paper that came out of the printer. "See you later, aardvark." Maxine cackled.

"What'd you get?" Travers asked.

"I've got a hit on the biological sample from the first victim's sheets. You know, Roger Miller." Maxine said, and went off to find Calleigh.

-x-

"To get Elena's attacker caught we need to get a fresh look on the crime scene. We could've easily missed something." Ryan said, as he and Natalia stood on the dock that the casino boat was towed to.

"Yup." Natalia said, stepping onto the ramp the led to the entrance of the boat.

Once they were in the engine room again, Natalia set off to once again inspect the beam that Elena was duct taped to, while Ryan looked for any biologicals around the room. Natalia looked at Ryan for a few seconds, wondering why her friend was acting so strange. Sudden and loud footsteps were heard in the room, making both the CSIs whip around and pull out their gun. A guy in his late teens to early twenties suddenly got out from the "storage" room that was hidden under the trap door.

"Who are you?" Natalia asked, and the guy got out his hands up.

"I'm a janitor. I sleep in that room. I just heard you guys up here and wondered what was going on." He said. He talked with a thick accent, one that was too familiar for Ryan.

"What's your name?" Ryan asked.

"Dima." He said, and Ryan sighed, his gun still pointed at the guy.

"This is a closed crime scene, why are you here?" Natalia and Ivan shrugged.

"This is the only place where I live. I live on the boat." He said, still staring at the guns that both of the CSIs held. "Can you please put guns down, please?" He asked. Neither of the two answered him.

"Do you know Elena?" Natalia asked, and fear filled Dima's eyes.

"Elena? Elena Simonovna? She's my sister." Dima said.

"And you guys are both Russian, right?" Natalia asked. Dima nodded.

"Is everything okay with her? I haven't seen her in a while." Dima said, and Natalia sighed.

"Just come with us. We'll explain everything." Natalia said, pulling the guy out of the engine room, leaving Ryan one on one with the crime scene.

-x-

"So, you, Roger Miller's maid were also sleeping with him." Calleigh said as she looked at young woman that sat in front of her.

"Sleeping with someone isn't a crime." She said, glaring at Calleigh.

"No, it is not, but lying to a police officer is." Calleigh stated. "When we first questioned you, you said that you found Mr. Miller dead in the morning." Calleigh opened her file.

"That's right. I babysit for a couple in the Coral Gables at night. I'm like a dula but I just look over the baby so that the parents can sleep peacefully." The maid said.

"Was last night's dinner made by him was for you?" Calleigh asked carefully. The maid broke out into a laugh, yet finished it with a sort of half sob.

"Funny. He never cooked. I made Mr. Miller the dinner for him and his new girl. I then left. I returned around ten that night, when I was supposed to clean away everything. That's when he kissed me. We had sex, and then I left." The maid said. "I'm only trying to make a living, ma'am." She said, her voice a lot softer than what she had started with when the interogation started.

"I know. Nothing bad about that." Calleigh said, as a brown uniformed officer came into the room to get the maid. She wasn't a suspect yet.

-x-

"What happened to Lena?" Dima asked, when he was faced by Ryan and Natalia.

"We found her bound to a beam in the engine room. She's in the hospital at the moment." Natalia said.

"Wait, you mean she was on the boat?" Dima asked carefully. Natalia nodded. "She never comes on the boat. She hates boats." Dima stated.

"And you didn't see her 3 days ago?" Ryan asked, casting Natalia a glance.

"She said that she was going out with some friends going to some club. She just wanted to live her life, and I was looking out for my little sister." Dima sighed.

"Wait, how old is she?" Natalia asked suddenly.

"She's 16. I'm twenty." Dima said and a look of disgust spread over Natalia's face as she pulled out her cell phone.

* * *

><p><strong>Who wants me to try and write Buried Skeletons over Thanksgiving weekend?<strong>

**No idiot wants me to do that? :~(**

**Ahahahaha, ow. Hiccups hurt. :( **


	6. Repeating Mistakes

"I didn't know that she was only 16! She told me she was 25!" Martin said when he was dragged into the PD, handcuffs on his hands.

"Yeah, well, we honestly don't care." Frank snapped, as they walked him into one of the interogation rooms where Horatio was waitng for him, calm as ever.

"So, Martin, you like young girls, I see." Horatio said, when Martin sat down in front of him, hands on the table before him, handcuffed.

"You can't even prove that she's under age!" Martin exclaimed. "I helped you out-"

"Shut up." Horatio snapped at him. "We found Elena at your house. We know that she's 16 because she was only fourteen when she came to the United States from Russia. Her brother gave us her imigration papers." Horatio glared at Martin, but Martin didn't back down.

"I want a lawyer." Martin snapped. "And I don't want you to ask me anything about Elena anymore." Martin said.

"A laywer. Well, you know a lawyer would just tell you to be quiet and not say anything." Horatio said, his voice becoming a whisper. "Which could harm you even more, because unless you talk, you're going in for satuary rape. Maybe even attempted murder." Horatio said.

"Attempted murder? But I didn't do anything to her!" Martin exclaimed, realizing that he had no choice but to tell Horatio everything that he knew about Elena if he wanted to get out with a slap on the wrist. Or at least minimum jail time. "I met her at a club. I bought her a drink. We exchanged phone numbers, and then went out for coffee." Martin said. "A few weeks later, we were dating." Martin said. "She told me that she was 25. She showed me her ID, almost mocking me." Martin sighed, staring at his handcuffed hands.

"That's good, Martin, very good. Thank you." Horatio said, still staring at Martin. "Take him, please." Horatio instructed to the officer that overlooked the interogation. Martin was almost at the the door when Martin's voice reached Horation.

"So do I get any protection, or can I get a deal?" Martin asked, Horatio chuckled.

"No. You're nothing but a child predator." Horatio said, his voice full of supperesed anger.

-x-

The cards in his hand felt sweaty. He wasn't supposed to be doing this- there was abosolutely no need for doing this. He had not gambled in so long, it would be stupid to return to his old ways. But, he was gambling no the less. Second time this week, too. It felt too exhilarating to stop. Ryan stared at his cards intently, before looking up at the people that were watching him. The dealer's smile was crooked, as though he knew his secret. He looked around the table again, realizing the fact that he had lost the skill to read faces. But he didn't care. Some habits were just too hard to kick.

-x-

Natalia's phone buzzed as it lay on the bed side stand. If it was a duty call, then her sleep would once again be cut off. Without even raising her head, Natalia's hand looked for phone. It wasn't a duty call. It was an empty text with about a dozen photos attached. As she went through the photos, anger and fear gathered in her.

And the time stamp told her that it all happened last night.

-x-

All of Natalia's hairs stood on end as she caught up with Ryan. "I need to talk to you." Natalia said, as she stopped him half way to the elevator.

"What's going on?" Ryan asked, as Natalia walked into one of the labs, and closed the door behind her as soon as Ryan walked in.

"This is what's going on." Natalia hissed, handing Ryan her phone. Ryan's hazel eyes were filled with confusion and anger as he went through the photos. "Ryan, why the hell are you gambling again?" Natalia snapped. Ryan didn't look up at her.

"It was a stupid one time thing." Ryan muttered, and Natalia's words snagged in her throat.

"Ryan, I know you're lying!" Natalia snatched her phone back, and scrolled back to an eariler photograph. "The person, whoever this person was, took a picture of you playing poker on two different days. Ryan-" Natalia couldn't even think properly.

"It was just an experiment. I forgot how it was to play poker. How it was to gamble." Ryan sighed. "I left yesterday without even finishing the game because I remembered how slippery the slope was." Ryan said.

"Ryan, I swear to god, that if I get any more of these, I will go to IAB with this." Natalia said, Ryan staring at her with disbelief. It was as though she had told him that she would have no shame in betraying him.

"Nat- you- you wouldn't." Ryan stuttered, and Natalia sighed. She felt horrible after saying what she said, but it was the truth.

"Don't test me, because I will. Some things are more important than a job." Natalia said, before storming out of the room. When she reached the DNA lab she let out a small sob. She felt like she had just betrayed her best friend, because that's what she did do in some sense. She promised to turn him in.

* * *

><p><strong>Surprisingly evil, aint't it?<strong>

**Three things.**

**1) Yes, Ryan relapsing into gambling is hard to imagine, but it's an addiction, and addictions are hard to kick. **

**2) I AM FUCKING MENTAL. I finished BCC already, and I started it's sequel and I'm halfway done(kinda) with it.**

***SPOILER* Wanna read it?**

**Do you wanna read the teaser for the sequel?**

**You do?**

**Okay.**

**3) NATALIA IS DATING A SERIAL KILLER.**

**...**

**Yea.**

**LAWL I BET SOME OF YOU ARE LIKE WTF IS UP WITH THIS GAL? **

**Back to my lair. :)**


	7. Chapter 7

"We still don't know how Martin's saliva got on the duct tape that bound Elena, so that leaves us with how did Elena survive without a pulse for thirty minutes." Walter said. "Wolfe, what's gotten into you?" Walter asked, when Ryan didn't pay any attention, his mind being somewhere between the coffee "date" that he was supposed to have with Molly tomorrow, and what Natalia had told him today.

"Nothing. Um, it could have been a paralyzing agent that would have stopped or slowed down her heart beat for a long enough time until someone had took her away from the crime scene.

"And guess what? Hospital just texted me that Elena has regained consiousness and we can go question her." Walter said, before looking at Ryan. "Are you sure that you're fine, man?" Walter asked, and Ryan chuckled.

-x-

"Elena, I just have some questions for you." Calleigh said quietly as she sat down next to her. "Why were you on the boat?" Calleigh asked, as the brunette shifted in the hospital bed.

"I was on there with Martin. Someone hit me from behind, well, not hit me, bumped into me, and then I saw blackness." Elena said, a small shudder running through her.

"Okay. Do you remember being in the engine room?" Calleigh asked, and Elena sighed.

"I don't know this boiler room. I wasn't touching the floor when I stopped seeing blackness. I was in a room with a lot of noise. That's when I saw two people in the room, one was a man, the other one was a woman." Elena said.

"Must've been our two CSIs that thought you were dead." Calleigh said.

"When they left, Martin and Dima came into the room-" Elena said, and then stopped. "I shouldn't have said that." She said, looking like a deer in headlights. Calleigh frowned, looking at the young girl.

"Said what?" Calleigh asked quietly.

"No! I'm not going to tell you! I can't!" Elena exclaimed, as her heart rate started dropping so fast that within seconds the room was filled with nurses that were telling Calleigh to leave.

-x-

"I was in here yesterday and now I'm out on bail. What now?" Martin sighed. "You also told me that I'm a child predator, so why would I want to talk to you?" Martin asked, and Walter only smirked.

"You lied to us, Martin. You told us that you did not see Elena the day that we found her on the offshore casino." Ryan said. "She told us that when I and another CSI left the room, you and Dima entered and did something. What did you do?" Ryan asked, as Walter sat across from Martin.

"Okay. I was on the boat with Elena that day. She disappeared. I thought that she went off to see her brother or something and that's why I went to the engine room. I didn't know that I would find you guys there so that's why I went off to find her brother. When you and your friend left, Dima and I, we took her down and we hid with her in Dima's room. After that I took her home. I didn't know that she could not feel pain and that's why I was so surprised when I saw her in the bathroom the next day, stitching herself up." Martin said, telling it all to Ryan as though it was a script.

"But you didn't tell us that when you were first questioned." Walter frowned.

"I didn't lie, so why is it such a big deal?" Martin asked. "Come on guys, it's all so stupid. I get jail time for dating and having sex with a girl who's 16 but she told me that she was twenty five, and now I'm getting the damn third degree from you guys because I didn't tell you that she was at my house." Martin sighed.

"Well, if we knew that she was at your house, then we would have been able to give her the medical care that she needed, and she wouldn't have been in critical care now!" Ryan snapped, looking at Walter with a frown on his face.

"I don't think that he's telling us the truth." Ryan said.

"Really? Why do you think that?" Walter asked, as Ryan looked out of the interogation room where he caught Natalia's eyes for about a milisecond before she hid her face and hurried out of view.

"When he told us about what happened on the boat, it almost seemed as though he was telling us that from a script." Ryan said. "It sounded a lot like what Elena had told Calleigh at the hospital." Ryan frowned.

"Well, let's go get Dima then." Walter shrugged.

-x-

"What's going on between you and Martin? We can't a straight answer out of either of you two." Natalia frowned, when Dima sat in front of her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dima said. "Lena doesn't like me that much. She think that I'm in her way of making her way to stardom, to becoming rich and famous. I wasn't in my room when Lena was in the engine room. I was cleaning the capitan's cabin. When the boat has a party, that's the only time when I can really clean the cabin up." Dima sighed.

"Can anyone confirm that?" Natalia asked, and Dima nodded.

"There are camera's in the cabin. The capitan... he likes to record himself and the girls." Dima grimaced.

-x-

"So there's our guy mopping the floor-" Dave said as he and Calleigh were going through the footage of the cabin. "And he's in the cabin at the time of Elena's attack.

"His alibi checks out. Do they by any chance have a camera in the engine room?" Calleigh asked, as Dave scrolled through the camera locations and shook his head.

"Nope. But they do have a camera right outside of the engine room." Dave said, bringing up the footage from that camera. "So, here's the time when Elena should've been dragged into the engine room, because she said that she was unconsious at the time of being bound to the beam." Dave fast forwarded to that point, and then just frowned, Calleigh doing the same.

"She's consious. And making out of with that guy." Calleigh said, and then looked at Dave. "She lied to me." Calleigh said, as they went through more off the footage. After about fifteen minutes, the unknown guy left the room. After about 5 minutes, another man entered the room. He did look at the camera, letting Dave find out who he was.

"Martin?" Calleigh frowned.

"Elena's boyfriend?" Dave asked. Calleigh nodded. He contiuned with going through the footage. Martin left about ten minutes later, hurrying out the corridor. And that was when Dima hurried down towards the engine room. He didn't enter the room, he only saw what was outside before running off to find someone. Twenty minutes later, the camera showed Ryan and Natalia entering the engine room. When they left, Dima was there once again, and when the

cop that was gaurding the room walked away, he got in. After that, he didn't leave.

"This case just got a lot more complicated." Calleigh sighed, as she pulled out her cell phone.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh my brain has exploded<strong>

**Writing RaiN before they even knew each other makes that happen.**

**And it's canon~ish.**

**OaO Katia.**


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